Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, the Chief Rabbi of Tzfat, called for “a government of faith” in an article distributed in synagogues over the weekend. It is possible for Israel to have a religious prime minister, he said, and the religious public should make that its goal.

Israel’s prime ministers have appealed to the religious public by using phrases such as “God willing,” Rabbi Eliyahu said, but have gone on to give away land and destroy Jewish communities. “We need a prime minister who acts based on genuine faith and values,” he said. Even if some of Israel’s secular prime ministers have had good intentions, he said, “they are able to sell off the country and Jerusalem in one deal, and they are able to put all of us in existential danger.”